1 John 4:2

2. For γινώσκετε ([706]3[707][708][709][710]) [711]1 has γινώσκομεν: [712], Peschito, and Vulgate have γινώσκεται. For ἐληλυθότα ([713][714][715]) [716] has ἐληλυθέναι: see also possibly the Vulgate (venisse).

[706] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[707] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.
[708] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[709] 5th century. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it. In the National Library at Paris. Part of the First and Third Epistles; 1 John 1:1 to 1 John 4:2; 3 John 1:3-14. Of the whole N.T. the only Books entirely missing are 2 John and 2 Thessalonians.

[710] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[711] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[712] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[713] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[714] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.
[715] 5th century. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it. In the National Library at Paris. Part of the First and Third Epistles; 1 John 1:1 to 1 John 4:2; 3 John 1:3-14. Of the whole N.T. the only Books entirely missing are 2 John and 2 Thessalonians.

[716] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.

2. ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκετε. Once more we have a verb which may be either indicative or imperative (1 John 2:27; 1 John 2:29). The indicative is to be preferred in spite of the imperative in 1 John 4:1. The passage is closely analogous to 1 John 3:16; 1 John 3:19; 1 John 3:24, which must be indicative. In all four cases the Apostle appeals to the progressive experience of Christians. Ἐν τούτῳ refers to what follows: see on 1 John 3:19. Nowhere else in the Epistle is ἐν τούτῳ joined to an imperative.

πᾶν πν. δ ὁμολογεῖ. This idea of ‘confessing’ one’s belief is specially frequent in S. John: John 2:23; John 4:15; 2 John 1:7; John 9:22; John 12:42; comp. Romans 10:9.

Ἰησ. Χρ. ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλύθοτα. See on 2 John 1:7. This is the crucial test, and one which would at once expose ‘the spirits’ of Cerinthian and Docetic teachers. We are not to suppose that all other articles of faith are unimportant; or that to deny this truth is the worst of all denials (see on 1 John 2:22); or that such denial involves every kind of doctrinal error. But against the errors prevalent in that age this was the great safeguard. The confession must of course be not with the tongue only but in truth, and in deed as well as in word (1 John 3:18): non lingua sed factis, non sonando sed amando (Bede).

The sentence may be taken in more ways than one: (1) as both A.V. and R.V.; (2) more accurately and with some difference of meaning, confesseth Jesus Christ as come in the flesh; (3) confesseth that Jesus is the Christ come in the flesh. Remark that S. John does not say ‘come into the flesh,’ but ‘in the flesh’: Christ did not descend (as Cerinthus said) into an already existing man, but He came in human nature; He ‘became flesh.’ Moreover he does not say that the confession is to be of a Christ who came (ἐλθόντα), but of a Christ who is come (ἐληλυθότα). This ‘coming’ is not an exhausted fact: He is come and abides in the flesh. Some Latin writers have in carnem venisse for in carne venisse; but this is bad Latin rather than bad doctrine. The translator has not been able to mark the difference between εἰς σάρκα and ἐν σαρκί.

S. Paul gives almost exactly the same test: ‘I give you to understand that no man speaking in the Spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema; and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit’ (1 Corinthians 12:3).

ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐστίν. Proceeds from Him as its source. Comp. 1 John 4:3; 1 John 4:6-7; 1 John 2:16; 1 John 3:10; 3 John 1:11; John 7:17; John 8:47. Outside S. John’s writings the expression is not common: comp. Acts 5:38; 1 Corinthians 11:12. It is closely akin to the idea of Divine birth (1 John 2:29; 1 John 3:9) and being children of God (1 John 3:1-2; 1 John 3:10). “To confess that Jesus the anointed is come in the flesh, is to confess that there is a medium of spiritual communications between the visible and the invisible world, between earth and heaven. It is to confess that there is one Mediator for all men” (Maurice).